Day #31 in the 50 Day Book Challenge

[shadowkat]

The prompt is Name a trilogy

I'm trying to decide... does The Lord of the Rings count as a trilogy?

Hmm.

I think I'll go with Suzanne Collins The Hunger Games instead. The Hunger Games is a trilogy that takes place in a dystopian future featuring a heroic young girl who takes her sister's place as a tribute in the Games.
It's a coming of age tale featuring a heroine - and in some respects I found it more memorable and better written than Harry Potter. Although the two are very different.

Collins critiques popular culture and societal views in her novel - in particular the reality show craze, along with plastic surgery, and the huge divide between rich and poor.

In addition it poses more questions than answers, forcing the reader to look at themselves and their own complicity in a similar future.

Like Tolkien's books, I found Collins to be an anti-war tale. Depicting the unfathomable cost violence takes on the human soul. And what can be said of a culture that sends its own children into War.

We are judged, Collins states through her characters, by how we treat our young. A culture, a society is best judged in how it treats the children of others. And ours, so far, is found to be lacking.

Watch on YouTube

Note, one of the few trilogies that was adapted spectacularly into films. The films actually do the books justice. And they wisely split the last novel into two films - so there's four films and three novels.

[I'd have picked His Dark Materials - but it actually has five books now.]

Comments

[rose_griffes]

The Hunger Games, while not perfect, was both a well-done critique and compelling as a story. Also, I like the films too--not as much as the books, but Lawrence did a good job in the role.

[shadowkat]

Agreed. In some respects, I preferred the books for the nuances and the centralized point of view, which works remarkably well. But the movies were well-cast, scored, and captured the feel, tone, and world of the books rather well. One of the better film adaptations.

[wendelah1]

I have never read The Hunger Games, nor seen the movies. As a parent, I found the premise rather off-putting.

I guess this is now considered (being marketed as?) a trilogy: Louisa May Alcott: Little Women, Little Men, Jo's Boys. I loved Little Women, and have reread it many times, most recently in 2019 before the latest movie adaption was released. I have never reread the second and third books of this series. I barely remember them.

[shadowkat]

Well, you've gotten further than me, I've never made it through Little Women. I think the difficulty is that I've seen five of the adaptations, which kind of killed the appeal right there.

The Hunger Games is YA dystopian fiction. It actually started the YA Dystopian Fiction craze. It took off like gang-busters, sold millions, and all the publishers tried to copy it. You can blame The Hunger Games for The 100, Maze Runner, Children of Blood and Bone, etc. There's a whole genre now.

It's the best of the bunch in my opinion - since it does an excellent critique of our reality obsessed culture, and how it puts children in violent situations. When interviewed, Collins stated that her aim was to examine the detrimental effects of violence on children. It has some beautifully written passages, and possibly one of the best endings I've seen in its genre and teen literature.

I have a niece who I adore and it didn't bother me. And I know a lot of parents who loved the series. But I'm not sure I'd recommend reading it right now. I read it back when it was first published, somewhere around 2008.